2013: End of year thoughts.

I'll be blunt - 2013 was a shitty year.

I've come to the conclusion that the World is on a dangerous path to extinction care of global warming, and collectively our governments are not the way to solving this problem.

I've realized that corporations large, medium, and small pretty much dominate everything in life, and that this is a big part of why no one is really doing anything about addressing global warming. They effectively gum up the works of pretty much every political process to suit their own interests at the expense of the very societies these systems are supposed to be accountable to.

Too many bad movies - too many movies with the same 1-2 actors being pushed over and over. I really get sick of that. I get sick of seeing really horribly-talented actors showing up in just about every film either with ugly faces and acting, or annoying celebrity voice-overs. And really - all these endless CGI movies and celebrity voice-over stupidity - that is the best the film industry can do? That's as original as they can get?

I watched everything I did at the office amount to absolutely nothing in terms of promotion, merit, or even real acknowledgement. Indeed, every accomplishment was read back to me by the powers-that-be read more like a bunch of back-handed compliments.

I watched as other people who cannot perform the actual job (but are very good at managing up and ass-licking) move into positions of authority.

After two consecutive years of writing rock albums - I hit a complete stop this year and failed to write one. Oh I have tons of ideas, words, chord progressions lying around. And I did have a track listing to walk through. Yet somehow I couldn't do it.

I started the year w/a mysterious back injury, that despite some surgery and tons of stretching, remains with me to this very moment, unresolved.

I watched my home life become more unhappy as the problems from the previous years only seemed remain and be unresolved.

It's the year I really felt like I hit middle age. I finally am seeing the first visible signs of aging in my face, in my skin, in my hair.

And not just in age and appearance.

But I mean I felt colder, grumpier, less patient, less tolerant.

Okay - that's the bad.

Was there any good?

Well... I did become a US Citizen. Finally after all these years of work and struggle, I'm able to work pretty much anywhere in the US or Canada.

I did lose some weight. Granted because of the aformentioned back injury, I wasn't nearly working out as much as I should. Hence, I think much of the weight I lost was largely muscle mass. Still I didn't put on any fat though.

I did make some connections here and there with possible moves I could make in the future. It's simply a question of seeing the right opportunity coming around and making the right move.

I still have my ideas. I still have my lyrics. I still have my chord progressions. I still have my track listings.

And perhaps most important - the shitty 2013 gives me all the motivation now to make 2014 a year I will look back on fondly. It's up to me to make it happen.

Franz Bakery caught lying about High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in their products!

To a lot of companies, saying their products don't contain HFCS is apparently is marketing. They hope you'll see that and buy there products and hopefully not notice the reality.

Case in point -

The other day the Mrs. went to store and was buying hamburger buns. As is the case in American grocery stores, pretty much every food product (unless actually certified organic) being pushed has either high fructose corn syrup or some other genetically modified ingredient.

So we've typically bought Franz bakery stuff because they go out of their way to say on the front of their products that it doesn't contain this frakenshit.

When she reached out to a set of of rolls that were indeed advertised as such, initially she was going to put it in the cart. But curiosity getting the better of her, she turned it around and looked carefully through the ingredient list (she's been burned recently by this, as have I)

Guess what? On the front of the package, it clearly listed 'No High Fructose Corn Syrup'.

Guess what else? On the back of the package, guess what ingredient was listed?


HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!

You can imagine her surprise, as well as mine when she told me.

This got me wondering about a lot of things -

Was this a one-off situation?
Could this just be a misprint?
Is this only at one store?

So yesterday, we went to another grocery store in another part of the county. And this time I brought along my phone.

Here's what I saw-

 Looks alright doesn't it? Then I turned it over and looked at the ingredient list ...

Hmm ... let's blow that up a bit shall we?

Marketing is all about getting you to suspend your judgement and do what someone (or as is often the case, a large corporation) want you to do (buy their product).

Facts and reality are a pesky thing - they don't just go away do they?

Thank you Franz. Now not only will I not buy this product or any other product of yours, but starting today, I frankly will not trust your labels going forward.

XMAS eve

Here I am again. Another day of loathing and either watching others enjoy their work and be successful; or worse them not being here at all and being happy in their lives.

I have been told that in life you should strive for happiness; from which success should follow.

Since I have come to the conclusion that I really have never gotten either in my life, it's hard to know if that's the way to go.

Truman would've known

Wonder if I can find this original op-ed piece he wrote about the CIA, coincidentally a few days after JFK was murdered?

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/12/22/trumans-true-warning-on-the-cia/

Truman then moved quickly to one of the main things bothering him. He wrote “the most important thing was to guard against the chance of intelligence being used to influence or to lead the President into unwise decisions.”

Think this doesn't have repercussions, even today? Think again assholes -

This may be small solace to President Obama, but there is no sign that the NSA documents that Snowden’s has released include the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 6,300-page report on CIA torture. Rather, that report, at least, seems sure to be under Obama’s and Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein’s tight control.

But the timorous President has a big problem. He is acutely aware that, if released, the Senate committee report would create a firestorm – almost certainly implicating Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan and many other heavy-hitters of whom he appears to be afraid. And so Obama has allowed Brennan to play bureaucratic games, delaying release of the report for more than a year, even though its conclusions are said to closely resemble earlier findings of the CIA’s own Inspector General and the Constitution Project

Did everyone in the Northern Hemisphere enjoy the Winter Solstice yesterday?

Winter Solstice - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice

 

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_21

"In the Northern Hemisphere, December 21st is the first day of Winter and the shortest day of the year."

Ah another weekend of joy.

Yay me.

Good holiday cheer for some; death and misery for others.

And sometimes it happens in the same neighborhood -

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/12/18/3081571/bay-area-homeless-deaths/

How would you feel if you knew about the following?

1. Corporations Profit from Food Stamps
2. Crash the Economy, Get Your Money Back. Die with a Student Loan, Stay in Debt.
3. Almost 70% of Corporations Are Not Required to Pay ANY Federal Taxes
4. Lotteries Pay for Corporate Tax Avoidance
5. The National Football League Pays No Federal Taxes
6. Live on Park Avenue, Get a Farm Subsidy
7. Profit Margin Magic: Turning a dollar into $100,000

Read about it here - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/12/16-1.

Then throw up, cry, scream - whatever it takes to get you to plug back into the media complex that pushes endless crappy content at you to forget all this ever had already happened.



      

Death Zones - a scary part of my childhood found on YouTube.

I think I was traumatized for decades by these movies -

Death Zones


Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I thought this was so real when I first saw it. That voice-over ... that chilling music ...
... the notion that death can happen right as you're coming home.

Interesting how the non-white kids meet their end instantly (okay in that 2nd film, scary voice-over guy implies that he survives, but hey! He doesn't move), but the white girl is still alive at the end of hers.

This is why I'd have real trouble voting for Hillary Clinton.

When she says stupid things like this -

http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/12/12/hillary-clinton-tells-wall-street-she-believes-anti-wall-street-rhetoric-foolish/

That the NSA spying thing made the Wikipedia 'In the news' section is itself news.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_surveillance_disclosure#December

The new explosive bit -

"The Washington Post revealed that the NSA has been tracking the locations of mobile phones from all over the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve U.S. cellphones as well as foreign ones. In the process of doing so, the NSA collects more than 5 billion records of phone locations on a daily basis. This enables NSA analysts to map cellphone owners’ relationships by correlating their patterns of movement over time with thousands or millions of other phone users who cross their paths.^{[185][186][187][188][189][190][191]}"

The story of how the CIA sold out Mandela should be told over and over again.

http://fair.org/take-action/media-advisories/cia-and-mandela-can-the-story-be-told-now/

Yes, the truth still counts.

Is it just me ...

... or do all the women in these pictures appear extremely overjoyed at how shocked you are at how beautiful they are made to look?

The joy of my life.

Blogging used to be such a fun thing.

Whenever I had a thought or rant or saw something that caught my eye, I'd post it and comment.

Inevitably, I used the Internet to connect and learn about how truly fucked up the planet really is, and where it's going. So suddenly it's become almost like a game with myself - how can I top the last entry in terms of progressiveness and liberalness.

Then life sets in.

A job. A family. Endless responsibilities and zero reward.These things take over. And before I knew it, I find myself posting in between the kids reading with grandma, and my 10 minute workout to prevent my body from falling into further disrepute.

It used to be fun. Many things used to be fun. Perhaps I'm paying the price for being such a slacker much of my life. But truly it's hard to find a lot to be positive about these days.

Man, talk about liberalish.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundations-24-most-egregious-investments

I noticed this at Microsoft - he always talked a good game and it sounded good, but somehow it always got twisted and ended up evil.

RIP Nelson Mandela

A true fighter who will always be remembered.

New shoe blues

I must have weird feet. It seems over the last few years it's been extremely difficult to find a pair of shoes that not only fit comfortably, but don't fall apart.

Is it I have poor judgement? Bad taste? Or just bad luck?

Granted I think I put shoes through a lot more paces than say 10 years ago. But still ...

Finding a pair of black leather shoes that don't crack, are weather-resistant, and are afffordable ...

America, why do you mock me so?

'messy public relations' indeed.

"I suspect this decision has a lot more to do with messy public relations than with science. From a strictly scientific perspective, the Séralini study isn’t a big deal: It’s just one of the many safety trials that researchers have performed on GM foods; it amounts to little when considered as part of the whole picture. The way scientists usually deal with this sort of finding is to ignore it. As Séralini’s team pointed out in a response to the retraction [doc], many other studies might be disqualified if they were held to the same standard.

From a public-relations perspective, on the other hand, the Séralini study is a huge deal. To people who aren’t familiar with the larger body of research, and who mistrust GMOs, it looks like proof that GM food kills. It produced disturbing images of tumorous rats that continue bouncing around social media to this day. The retraction provides an easy rejoinder to that sort of thing. As in, “You know that study was retracted, right?”"

Stupidity and its need to circumvent fact and observation wins out here - only because it's institutionalized.

But facts are a pesky thing - they just don't go away because enough people have been convinced to ignore the reality of what observing those facts mean.

http://grist.org/food/rat-retraction-reaction-journal-pulls-its-gmos-cause-rat-tumors-study/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%2520Nov%25203&utm_campaign=daily

What a chart.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/goldman-sachs-income-inequality_n_4378321.html

This sounds like a good idea to me.

Environmentalists Want to Name Deadly Storms After Climate-Change Skeptics

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-03/environmentalists-want-to-name-deadly-storms-after-climate-change-skeptics

The tree is up.

Just tradition I suppose.

Wow Google and ALEC in bed together.

Not smart for them or the rest of us.

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/11/12319/google-funding-grover-norquist-heritage-action-alec-and-more

Sign the petition - http://org.salsalabs.com/o/632/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14651#

They should call it Fat Friday.

Too much turkey, pie, and cake (groan).

I fought back the urge to throw up when reading this.

Two reasons -

1) Didn't want to make a mess on the screen and keyboard.
2) Likely what I was throwing probably had tons of frakenfood.

"Glyphosate-based herbicides are now the most commonly used herbicides in the world. Glyphosate is an essential partner to the GMOs that are the principal business of the burgeoning biotech industry. Glyphosate is a “broad-spectrum” herbicide that destroys indiscriminately, not by killing unwanted plants directly but by tying up access to critical nutrients.

Because of the insidious way in which it works, it has been sold as a relatively benign replacement for the devastating earlier dioxin-based herbicides. But a barrage of experimental data has now shown glyphosate and the GMO foods incorporating it to pose serious dangers to health. Compounding the risk is the toxicity of “inert” ingredients used to make glyphosate more potent. Researchers have found, for example, that the surfactant POEA can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells. But these risks have been conveniently ignored.

The widespread use of GMO foods and glyphosate herbicides helps explain the anomaly that the US spends over twice as much per capita on healthcare as the average developed country, yet it is rated far down the scale of the world’s healthiest populations. The World Health Organization has ranked the US LAST out of 17 developed nations for overall health.

Sixty to seventy percent of the foods in US supermarkets are now genetically modified. By contrast, in at least 26 other countries—including Switzerland, Australia, Austria, China, India, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy, Mexico and Russia—GMOs are totally or partially banned; and significant restrictions on GMOs exist in about sixty other countries."

Think these countries know something most Americans don't?

But wait - there's more!

"As the devastating conclusions of these and other researchers awaken people globally to the dangers of Roundup and GMO foods, transnational corporations are working feverishly with the Obama administration to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that would strip governments of the power to regulate transnational corporate activities. Negotiations have been kept secret from Congress but not from corporate advisors, 600 of whom have been consulted and know the details. According to Barbara Chicherio in Nation of Change:

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has the potential to become the biggest regional Free Trade Agreement in history. . . .

The chief agricultural negotiator for the US is the former Monsanto lobbyist, Islam Siddique.  If ratified the TPP would impose punishing regulations that give multinational corporations unprecedented right to demand taxpayer compensation for policies that corporations deem a barrier to their profits.

. . . They are carefully crafting the TPP to insure that citizens of the involved countries have no control over food safety, what they will be eating, where it is grown, the conditions under which food is grown and the use of herbicides and pesticides."

Read more here - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/26-9

It seems at times I never want to grow up.

No, I don't mean like in a moronic arrested development bullshit thing.

I mean that for much of my life, I loathed holidays like Christmas, and Thanksgiving and so on. In this day and age I despise them because they are inherently a reminder that human society has yet to shed it's religious and racist pasts (all this good will towards men, and feeding the pilgrims was just bullshit) - but really I've had different reasons for disliking holidays.

I think for me, holidays are a reminder that your time away is that just that- time away from work. At some point, you have to go back to school or work or a job. You know, the shit you have to wipe off some person or some system's rear end to pay the bills and survive, or back to a classroom and homework.

So - what is it about those things that I despise?

I really hate morons and idiots (apart from myself). And more so, I hate people like this who end up in positions of authority or worse still, are successful and promoted or considered valuable. I hate cliques and groups that continually exclude people because of the way they look, or talk, or act or dress.

I saw a lot all this in school in my my work career. And the fact is, if I had a real choice in life, I'd be doing something that makes me happy that doesn't involve having to deal with people like this on a regular basis. Or, at least if I had to, I could deal with them on my own terms - using facts, logic and a clock to restrict the time only to what needed to be communicated, and nothing more.

I think that's why I like Saturdays. My goal in life is to make every day a Saturday - one where I can walk up and not have a plan for the day, and I can gather up my family and friends and do something great or neat, or just hang out and relax, or write or jam on a new song or create something new.

Or better still, teach the human race (starting with myself) to no longer hate, no longer destroy, no longer be so mean so vile, so corrupt.

And even, meet new people, talk with them, walk with them, get to know them, help them with their problems and so on.

And of course, lots of sex, exercise, guitar playing, and good food.

And ... in my dream life, I have perfect hair, a smooth hairless strong physique, and rather than being an object of desire, rather seen as a man of respect, kindness, courage, honesty and integrity.

Maybe I am a simpleton. Maybe I am a child. I wonder sometimes if it's a coincidence that this feeling and when it started dovetailed with around the time I started to believe that achieving success meant happiness. While I've since began to re-visit this notion, there's a part of me that still believes there's some truth to this notion. Success is about being acknowledged and recognize for one's accomplishments - typically something good that could be shared. For me that kind of recognition is something I've rarely ever gotten, except in myself documenting it in my next resume. But I think on some level I've revisited this idea - success rather should be a by-product of doing something that makes you happy.

Yeah, this 'Code' is fucking bunk.

http://itsnotpartofthegame.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-code-creating-honor-amongst.html#more

"Throughout the 1980’s there is no reference to “The Code” that I could find in any player interview, game summary or sports article.  I managed to find “hockey” and “code of conduct” in several links but they were descriptions of rules that would be the opposite of what I was looking for – rules that banned fighting and dirty play in the sport.  During the 80’s, a period that could be defined as the glory years for enforcers, I could find no mention of unwritten rules or “The Code”"

My thoughts exactly.

A sad and perhaps forgotten anniversary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_John_F._Kennedy

One of the last powerful people to go up against the establishment.

I'll believe this when it actually comes true and the US Democratic Party actually puts it to positive use.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/harry-reid-nuclear-option-senate

Bye-bye filibuster?

Quote of the day - 11-19-2013.

Courtesy Nigel Wright -

''We are good to go from the PM"

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/wright-duffy-accused-of-bribery-fraud-in-new-rcmp-documents-1.2433427 

No shadow of a doubt should exist in Canadians' minds. The 'majority' voted for a crook. This guy is Canada's Nixon for sure.

This is what you get when you put right-wingers in office. You'd think Canadians would learn from Americans when the Bushes got themselves installed into the White House.

Let's hope Canadians can learn from this and not make the same mistake again.

Living in WA, I initially didn't agree with the title of this article.

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20134-did-the-anti-gmo-movement-really-lose-in-washington

Here's why (Mr. Cummins writes) -

"As Monsanto and the GMA understand, their dirty money, dirty tricks campaign in Washington has backfired, stimulating another consumer backlash, galvanizing an even larger and more radical anti-GMO grassroots movement than before. For the next 12 months the proponents of “no labels” on GMO foods will be facing legislative battles on labeling in no less than 30 states, with Vermont likely to pass mandatory labeling in early 2014."

The horrible deal just about no one in America knows about.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/13/trans-pacific-paternership-intellectual-property
https://wikileaks.org/tpp/pressrelease.html

"This treaty has been negotiated in secret meetings dominated by governments and corporations. You and I have been systematically excluded, and once you learn what they're doing, you can see why.

The outsiders who understand TPP best aren't surprised. That is, the draft "confirms fears that the negotiating parties are prepared to expand the reach of intellectual property rights, and shrink consumer rights and safeguards," writes James Love a longtime watcher of this process.

Needless to say, copyright is a key part of this draft. And the negotiators would further stiffen copyright holders' control while upping the ante on civil and criminal penalties for infringers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says TPP has "extensive negative ramifications for users' freedom of speech, right to privacy and due process, and hinder peoples' abilities to innovate"."

My first three YouTube videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CultureVultureSofG/videos

Just about every weekday there is this Link Light Rail driver I see constantly abusing the train horn. Well finally after much annoyance at watching this asshole get away with his stupidity at the taxpayer's expense, I decided to capture his actions on camera. Well here they are -


Number 1:


Number 2:


Number 3:

Trying to stop the looming Northern Gateway pipeline disaster ...

Climate change rallies staged across Canada

Rally participants in Vancouver oppose proposed Northern Gateway pipeline

CBC News Posted: Nov 16, 2013 10:00 AM PT Last Updated: Nov 16, 2013 5:54 PM PT

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/climate-change-rallies-staged-across-canada-1.2428825  

"Rally participants said they fear Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline would wreck havoc on the environment, bring tankers that would disrupt and endanger rare species along B.C.'s coast, and open oil shipments to Asia.

"It's about our world, our future, our children, our children's future," said Tamiko Suzuki, who rode her bike to the event." 

Frankenfood and Canada: A history all rolled up into one site!

Thank you CBC!

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/economy-business/agriculture/genetically-modified-food-a-growing-debate/identifying-genetically-modified-products.html

I feel bad.

Today I got on the bus to head home, and as always it was running late and packed with people. I ended up standing somewhere in the aisle in the middle of the bus. There was a old guy sitting next to a middle-aged woman, and he kept dropping his mobile phone on the ground. He looked old and worn down by life, his handlebar mustache was untrimmed, and his stubble covered more of his wrinkled face than your average person (I'm not one to complain because I'm like Homer Simpson: as soon as I shave, the stubble grows back in an hour. On the upside, no one sees wrinkles).

Anyways he looked really down on his luck and at the first stop he got off. I promptly took his seat. I started to notice a paper bag cutting into my side. I arrogantly assumed it was the middle-aged woman's - how rude of her I thought. She has a lap, why doesn't she use it instead of having it in my seat?

Some time went by and she eventually got up to get off. She left the bag behind, and despite my attitude about the whole thing I called out to her,

"Excuse me mam, but is this your bag?"

"No sir", she replied. "It belongs to that man who got off earlier. I guess he must have forgotten it."

I felt like abject shit. So much so because of my thoughts and conclusions about the situation were grossly wrong.

But wait, there's more!

I took a look inside the bag. Inside was a container of milk, and some packages of candy, one box of which was just opened. Now I felt bad. The guy had left some time ago, and probably got home all upset and pissed that he forgot his grocery bag. On top of that, it wasn't even bought at a grocery store, but rather a pharmacy, which somehow makes it even more depressing.

I couldn't hide the shame I felt.

When my stop came up, I took the bag up to the driver, but he said that he couldn't take and that it would likely get thrown out. So I took it home.

Now for the worst part.

When I got home, I put the milk in the fridge and showed the rest to my wife. Inside the bag was the receipt - he had paid with food stamps.

How awful I feel to this very moment - if only I wasn't so arrogant and more alert, this guy wouldn't be out all that he spent on some milk and some candies.

It just goes to show - be observant and alert. If you don't, you're likely to make bad decisions and worse not even be aware of it.

There's always something around to take advantage of someone else's misfortune.

http://warisacrime.org/content/lets-take-advantage-suffering-filipinos

And it's usually stupidity driven by surprise - a large corporation. And seriously, wow! The people they hire at USA Today are fucking maroons! Of course they exist and have jobs because there are even bigger maroons out there who'll buy their paper (killing trees) and actually buy into the shit they imprint on it.

I like how author (a thinking human being mind you) doesn't in the link doesn't pull punches however -

"When it comes to war, however, just propose to end it, and 4 out of 5 dentists, or doctors, or teachers, or gardeners, or anybody else in the United States will say "What about the next Hitler?"  Well, what about the dozens of misidentified next-Hitlers of the past 70 years?  What about the possibility that within our own minds we're dressing up war as disaster relief?  Isn't it just possible that after generations of clearly aggressive, destructive, and criminal wars we describe militarism as a response to the second-coming of Hitler because the truth wouldn't sound as nice?"

I gotta admit ... she looks great and sounds great.

http://music.cbc.ca/#/blogs/2013/11/Celine-Dion-23-years-of-mockery-manipulation-and-matters-of-the-heart

At least in those last two pictures.

Okay. She epitomizes over-the-top singing. But how!!

But with a set of pipes and talent, how can one not sing in that manner?

Wonder if I can get this to work

Yes. One more smartphone post test.

Samsung says she DIDN'T die of cancer caused from their plant ...?

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15898

What fucking bullshit - 

"The decision is a victory for Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor industry (SHARPs) – a South Korean activist group made up of independent labor unions, human right groups, occupational safety and health (OSH) groups, progressive political parties, and workers’ organizations – who have been campaigning against Samsung after they chronicled the deaths of 10 workers from leukemia and lymphoma beginning in 2005 after working at the company’s factories in Gi-heung and On-Yang, South Korea."

No matter how hard I try not to feel it ...

... it's still painful to see stupidity and falsehood win over fact and honesty.

I should not be so surprised. I see things like happen all the time - at work, at home, on the street, on the bus. This is just another example.

All one can do is learn from this and try better and smarter next time.

Maybe it really is just me.

For a recent birthday treat, one of my kids requested a pie instead of a cake.

Must be from the Mrs.' side of the family.

Say it ain't so ...

I guess I can only say it for so long, before I'll have to pay blackmail money to keep this site up.

What the fuck am I talking about?

Why this - http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/11/so-the-internets-about-to-lose-its-net-neutrality/

"... in their questions and statements during oral argument, the judges have made clear how they planned to rule — for the phone and cable companies, not for those who use the internet. While the FCC has the power to impose the toothless “no-blocking” rule (originally proposed by AT&T above), it does not (the court will say) have the power to impose the essential “nondiscrimination” rule.

It looks like we’ll end up where AT&T initially began: a false compromise.

The implications of such a decision would be profound. Web and mobile companies will live or die not on the merits of their technology and design, but on the deals they can strike with AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and others. This means large phone and cable companies will be able to “shakedown” startups and established companies in every sector, requiring payment for reliable service. In fact, during the oral argument in the current case, Verizon’s lawyer said, “I’m authorized to state from my client today that but for these [FCC] rules we would be exploring those types of arrangements.”

Wait, it gets even worse. Pricing isn’t even a necessary forcing factor. Once the court voids the nondiscrimination rule, AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast will be able to deliver some sites and services more quickly and reliably than others for any reason. Whim. Envy. Ignorance. Competition. Vengeance. Whatever. Or, no reason at all."

Well tomorrow's the day of my first vote as an American.

And yet, somehow it's not nearly as exciting as I thought it'd be.

In fact, it's actually quite depressing.

Well okay, there are some initiatives on the ballot I'm voting for and some I'm voting against (the former is giving state residents people the right to know their food has been fucked with by chemical companies, and the latter is one that benefits Tim Eyman, so you know it's bad).

But really apart from that, there's very little else to get excited about.

I'm really at the point in life where my political views are so jaded now - a choice between right-wingers and slightly center-of-right isn't much of a choice - both are pretty much pawns of corporations and PAC money now.

And most of the non-partisan ones feature people I either know nothing about, or likely I'd rather not know anything about because they suck.

Sure I could write in a candidate if I wanted to - but that would be pointless.

No - what would be a better alternative is to be able to legally spoil my ballot, but have it count.

Think about it - can you imagine if voters were empowered to do that? I think if it were enabled, voters would basically call both parties asses, and not be happy with either. What would happen?

Sure the government would be filled with chaos and confusion, thus miring down our court system. But ultimately I think the political parties would be forced to field new candidates. I think it'd be a great initiative.

Another idea (I just let them keep rolling) would be to have a spending cap on each political candidate - that is limit how much they can collect and spend. This is a variation on limiting campaign financing to public funds only, and banning private and corporate donations, but more so, it'd really take money out of the picture by forcing political campaigns to focus less on dollars and ads, and more on debate, discussions, and really talking about the issues without the Global Establishment involved.

But what do I know? I'm just a new American.

Do you ever get the feeling ...

... that your life and being solely exist to serve others?

That at times one can be an outsider in one's own life?

You have to wonder if this event was going on in JFK's mind ...

... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_South_Vietnamese_coup

"When Kennedy learned of the deaths during a White House meeting, he appeared shaken and left the room. Kennedy later penned a memo, lamenting that the assassination was "particularly abhorrent" and blaming himself for approving Cable 243,^[118] which authorised Lodge to explore coup options in the wake of Nhu's attacks on the Buddhist pagodas.^[118]["

I think it's no small coincidence that his reaction crystalized and confirmed his decision to begin withdrawing US Military presence less than a month earlier.

Tragically we know what went through his mind on November 22, 1963, and it wasn't a lone gunman.

The funny thing is ...

... I bet one would meet all sorts of interesting people kicking open random bathroom stalls.

More here.

How amusing indeed.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/10/27/how-amusing-barnes-noble-is-now-amazons-biggest-publishing-problem/

Indeed -

"B&N’s argument is that if they cannot sell the digital version of the book then they’ll not be willing to sell the paper one either. And Amazon really isn’t going to start offering B&N the opportunity to sell the digital versions.

The effect of this is larger than you might think. For Amazon had deliberately aimed at that general interest best seller market. But seeing that the books it has published haven’t gained traction it’s finding that authors and agents don’t particularly want to sign up with Amazon as the publisher"

Gee, as an author I wouldn't want anything to do with Amoron either.

Time to revolt - really? Now?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/29-4

Very nice, but frankly a part of me thinks the time to revolt has come and gone. Let's face it - our society's political systems have been so co-opted and corrupted by 500+ years of capitalism, corporations, and wealth and opulence all tied up with conservatism, religion and downright stupidity of the less-informed (willfully or otherwise) and downright idiocy of the cynical and tuned-out, to really think that human beings are truly going to come together as a species and really save the planet from irreversible destruction.

Simply put, not enough people really care enough to do something - that's the problem right there.

Yeah a public health care option would've been a very good first step.

Indeed, but it goes beyond that.

Right-wingers didn't object to it because they really thought it was bad.

Right-wingers objected to it because the public would accept it en masse, to the point where there'd be no choice but to move forward with a a nationalized single-payer health care plan that covers all.

I'll believe it was really Monstanto's bad week ...

... when the actions from Mexico, Hawaii hold true, and I-522 actually passes.

Still, this is a good sign.

It's because Diebold is a corporation - and not an individual sentient human being - that they can get away without being charged as a criminal.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10323

If they were an actual person, they'd be in jail. Instead, because they aren't, and because they have a shit-ton of money to spend (on such things as say, fines), there is no real accountability for their "worldwide pattern of criminal conduct".

I guess not everyone tests their software before it's rolled out to customers.

But hey, let's play the blame game when teams don't do proper performance testing under nominal, heavy, and peak volume loads (not to mention determining system stress capacity), nor do they conduct proper analysis and evaluation of changes in usage late in the testing cycle.

More here - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal-s-cgi-faces-scrutiny-over-troubled-obamacare-site-1.2187662

But at least the US Government is willing to admit just that ...

"With Republicans and Democrats launching attacks over the introduction of the insurance website, the Obama administration acknowledged Wednesday that the system didn't get enough testing, especially under high volume loads."

The price of progress? That's one way of putting it. I prefer the craziness of coal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Harbin_smog

"Officials blamed the dense pollution on lack of wind, burning of crop waste in farmers' fields, and the 20 October^[1] start-up of Harbin's coal-powered district heating system.^[2]"

More corporate stupidity - those who try to hide their brazen attempt to stop I-522.

The “No on 522″ donations include:

– Soft drink manufacturers:  Pepsico is tops with $1.6 million, just as it was the lead contributor in the 2012 campaign that defeated Prop. 37, a similar measure on the California ballot.  Coca-Cola has given $1.047 million to No on 522.

– “Big Chocolate:”  NestleUSA has given $1.052 million through the Grocery Manufacturers Association.  The Hershey Company has donated $248,305 that’s gone to No on 522.

– The cereal industry:  General Mills tops out with $598,819 that has found its way into No on 522 coffers, followed by Kellogg Co. with donations of $221,852 through the “Defense of Brands Strategic Account” fund set up by the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

– Bread and Butter:  Bimbo Bakeries — its brands include Orowheat, Sara Lee and Ball Park buns — has given $94,093, while butter maker Land O’ Lakes has donated $99,803.

– Agribusiness:  Such firms as Monsanto ($4 million) have given separately to the record-setting No on 522 campaign.  But Cargill & Co. put in $98,601 through the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and Conagra — whose products include Hunt’s Tomatoes, Banquet foods and David seeds — has put up $285, 281 to defeat the Washington labeling initiative.

– Canned foods:  Del Monte put in $86,576 through the “Defense of Brand” fund, and Campbell Soup gave $265,140.  Campbell donated $500,000 directly to the anti-Prop. 37 campaign in California last year.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/10/18/pepsi-coke-nestle-top-multi-million-dollar-campaign-against-i-522/ (Source Common Dreams, and HuffPo)

I kind of wondered this myself.

$13 Billion Dollar (USD) fine and no one goes to jail?

Of course JFK was killed by more than one gunman.

So says the doctor who first examined him (pesky these things facts, observation, and logic are) -

"Speaking via teleconference to a Duquesne University symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination, Robert N. McClelland said he was the first doctor in Parkland Hospital's Trauma Room One to notice the massive wound in the back of Kennedy's skull and that a trauma of that size had to be an exit wound.

"The whole right side of his skull was gone. I could look inside his skull cavity. Obviously, it was a mortal wound," he told a spellbound audience of legal, medical, forensic and investigative experts and the public who packed the university's Power Ballroom.

Dr. McClelland, now 83 and professor emeritus at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said that because it was an exit wound, it logically followed that it had been fired from in front of the president's limousine. And, in turn, that meant a second gunman was involved in the assassination, contradicting the Warren Commission's finding that there was but one assassin."


http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/surgeon-in-er-insists-2-gunmen-shot-jfk-708042/#ixzz2i7pzuTvp

I like the baby in this picture.

http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/protectors-vs-destroyers-canadians-unite-stop-fracking-new-brunswick/

Now that's what I call a rebel.

Quote of the day - 10-14-2013.

Courtesy Glenn Greenwald -

"Most people, let alone journalists, would be far too embarrassed to admit they harbor such subservient, obsequious sentiments. It's one thing to accord some deference or presumption of good will to political officials, but the desire to demonstrate some minimal human dignity, by itself, would preclude most people from publicly confessing that they have willingly sacrificed all of their independent judgment and autonomy to the superior, secret decrees of those who wield the greatest power."

Established journalism=Corporate Stenography, pure and simple.

It makes sense that since large global corporations with vast amounts of money (the lifeblood of corporation) pretty much own most national governments, it stands to reason that institutes that once called themselves part of the journalism profession would eventually be required to compromise their objectivity, honesty, and integrity to its readers and be beholden to their owners to maximize profit and sales over actual, you know, their job.

'Travesty' is hardly the word.

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18255-the-awarding-of-the-world-food-prize-to-a-monsanto-gmo-executive-is-a-travesty

It's like rewarding Amazon for selling books and supporting the book industry - they're a fucking cancer.

Smoking stupidty in a bus depot

More joy and stench at bus stop, care of this fool and his friends.

Feel like stopping the Tea Partiers and their corporate masters from destroying the US?

Those corporate masters being the Koch Brothers, who by the way have been the true funders of these pretend activists controlling the US House of Representatives and hence hijacking what's left of our democracy in order to destroy it?

Well it may not be much, but for starters, you can boycott Koch products -

Toilet Paper:
Angel Soft
Quilted Northern
Soft N, Gentle

Paper Towels:
Brawny
Sparkle
Mardi Gras

Napkins:
Mardi Gras
Vanity Fair
Zee

Agriculture:
Nitamin
Bumper Harvest

Food Service:
Quik-Rap sandwich paper
Quilt-Rap insulating sandwich wrap
Food Shop sandwich wrap
Menu tissue

Packaging:
Color-Box
MulitKraft

GP paper products
GP industrial claening & janitorial products
GP healthcare products
GP building & remodelling products

This all seems bad ...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-s-math-science-lag-bad-for-economy-report-says-1.1930150

Canada’s math, science lag bad for economy, report says

OECD survey finds Canadians’ numeracy ‘significantly below’ average

CBC News Posted: Oct 08, 2013 3:26 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 08, 2013 3:53 PM ET

"While Canadians scored far above average at problem solving in technology-rich environments and their average literacy score was around the average of OECD countries, their mean numeracy score was “significantly below the average,” the OECD said, putting Canada 13th out of 21 countries." 

A part of me does wonder how much of this is industry funded however ...

"Meanwhile, Canadians are paying a heavy price for the fact that less than 50 per cent of Canadian high school students graduate with senior courses in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at a time when 70 per cent of Canada’s top jobs require an education in those fields, said report released by the science education advocacy group Let’s Talk Science and the pharmaceutical company Amgen Canada. "

Check out the rather weasel-y last recommendation involving guess who ...?

So I thought I'd find out just how supports this 'advocacy group' ...

http://www.letstalkscience.ca/supporters.html

Ugh ... look who one of their 'champions' are ...

Champions

Sure I'd like to talk science, but I'd rather keep the Frakenfood purveyors of the world away from teenagers if you don't mind.
 

Monsanto - co-winners of the World Food Prize for their Frakenfood?

Honestly, one cannot make this shit up -

http://action.sumofus.org/s/world-food-prize-monsanto-syngenta-thanks/5/3/?action_id=11152923&akid=2390.963480.QkB3Ai&ar=1&form_name=act&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=1

A telling piece of info behind the award for fucking up the food supply you likely won't see in the corporate media -

"Winning this prize will encourage the wider use of genetically engineered crops and be a huge obstacle to those fighting to investigate the long-term effects of its frankenseeds -- which is exactly what Monsanto wants. In 2008, Monsanto made a $5 million pledge to the World Food Prize Foundation, part of its plan to buy the credibility it can’t legitimately earn. By handing its benefactor this award, the Foundation risks undermining the credibility of the most respected prize in agriculture."

Access the link below to do something about it.

Latest term to despise - '' Free registration required "

What the fuck does this mean?

Yes what you're about to access doesn't cost you money, but rather we want some information, take up time you'll never get back in giving it to us, and then we'll likely harass you later to try and sell you something you don't need or want.

Arrogance and ignorance go hand in hand.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/10/02/obamacare-dont-say-obama-video/

Perhaps it's a good thing my kids I'm not a sports parent.

Can you imagine having to deal with people like this?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/hockey-mom-s-spat-with-league-leads-to-ban-of-7-year-old-son-1.1876932

Meow! It's no wonder her kid was banned. It was her behavior and her daughter's behavior that got her son banned - the association simply doesn't want her causing her son to potentially act all unruly and endanger other kids.

Happy International Day of Non-Violence!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Non-Violence

Let's hope I can get through it without yelling, screaming, threatening, or hurting anyone.

Hey Guitar Player - chambered guitars != solidbody guitars.

Guys like this miss the point.

"So, from a perspective of tone, is there something inherently “wrong” with adding air space to a guitar that would otherwise pass as a traditional solidbody?"

Duh - yes. If you've ever played a classic Gibson Les Paul from before 2005 and compared it to say one of their more recent 'weight-relieved' models, apart from the latter being very expensive, the tone is noticeably thinner.

And more importantly it's not - nor should it be advertised as - a solidbody guitar.

If Gibson or any other guitar manufacturer wants to drill holes into what is advertised or implied as a solidbody guitar, that's their decision - However they should do the honest thing and call that out in their brochures and ads and not call it a solid body guitar, so a customer can know that before they plunk down their hard-earned cash that they'll literally buying quantities of space and air.

I never saw the American Right as different configurations, entities and indeed different versions.

That is, until I read this -

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/28/the-four-eras-of-the-american-right/

1. the pre-Confederate period from 1787 to 1860 when slave owners first opposed and then sought to constrain the Constitution, viewing it as a threat to slavery; 
2. the actual Confederacy from 1861 to 1865 when the South took up arms against the Constitution in defense of slavery; 
3. the post-Confederate era from 1866 to the 1960s when white racists violently thwarted constitutional protections for blacks; 
4. and the neo-Confederate era from 1969 to today when these racists jumped to the Republican Party in an attempt to extend white supremacy behind various code words and subterfuges.

It seems so obvious - and yet it's almost never discussed in society at pretty much any and every level.

Also note the connection between the American Right and the Global Confederation - the connection between the political ideology and the need to control resources to benefit the few were long established here -

"Because of political mistakes by the Federalists and Jefferson’s success in portraying himself as an advocate of simple farmers (when he was really the avatar for the plantation owners), Jefferson and his Democratic-Republicans prevailed in the election of 1800, clearing the way for a more constrained interpretation of the Constitution and a 24-year Virginia Dynasty over the White House with Jefferson, Madison and James Monroe, all slaveholders.

By the time the Virginia Dynasty ended, slavery had spread to newer states to the west and was more deeply entrenched than ever before. Indeed, not only was Virginia’s agriculture tied to the institution of slavery but after the Constitution banned the importation of slaves in 1808, Virginia developed a new industry, the breeding of slaves for sale to new states in the west."

Captured assholery on camera

Yes these smokers are in the bus depot polluting the air for everyone else. Against some ordinance I'm sure.

On the other hand, gotta love technology ... when it works.

Go Senator Merkley!

Let's not let this die in some committee consisting of senators bought and owned by Monsanto -

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/25/senate-democrats-move-to-end-monsanto-protection-act/

"The House Republican’s government funding bill, which passed in the House last week, contains a three-month extension of the Monsanto Protection Act, which shields companies like Monsanto and Dow Chemical from legal action resulting from Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) crops. The Act also places the authority of whether or not GMO crops can be grown and sold domestically into the hands of Federal Department of Agriculture rather than with the courts or public referendum. The Democratically-controlled Senate is making no plans to work to keep the rider active beyond its current expiration date."

Quote of the day - 09-25-2013.

"Only the collective ability to understand and act as a whole will save the planet and our species from our own eventual extinction."

That's my response to below ...

Context - From this marketing for Psychological Medicine study masquerading as an AP news story ...

http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2013/09/religious-believers-more-depressed-than-atheists-study.html

"The study, published in the October issue of Psychological Medicine but online now, followed more than 8,000 people in rural and urban areas in seven countries for one year. During the research, they were each examined at six- and 12-month intervals.

In those time frames, 10.3 per cent of religious participants became depressed, compared with 7.0 per cent for atheists and 10.5 per cent for those with a "spiritual understanding of life," the study found. "

I tend to think regardless of what they may believe happens after death - people are discovering that their beliefs won't really help them in this life - or future generations for that matter. I think what we're ultimately seeing is a very human and emotional reaction to the looming economic and ecological disaster global warming will bring; and it's slowly but surely being felt in peoples' lives.

And, the realization that their belief system doesn't provide any real answer for it.

Seriously - someone finally articulates what's wrong with Microsoft's 'device and services' mantra.

No, not exactly the author of this article, but rather a commenter named 'danbi'  -

"The current computing trend is all data centered and this is why it is so successful with users."

Another mobile post test

Let us see if this works.

If this is Canada's Hurricane Katrina ...

... then does this make Calgary Canada's New Orleans?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-floods-costliest-natural-disaster-in-canadian-history-1.1864599

"The Insurance Bureau of Canada says the June flood in southern Alberta is the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history.
The bureau says the latest estimate of the insured property damage now exceeds $1.7 billion."

The follies of believing repeated falsehoods - are delusion, poor decisions, and eventually death.

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/09/19/how-fake-2nd-amendment-history-kills/

"Yet that is not and never was the actual history. When the First Congress passed the Second Amendment in 1789, the goal was to promote state militias for the maintenance of order in a time of political violence, potential slave revolts and simmering hostilities with both European powers and Native Americans on the frontiers.

The amendment was never intended as a blank check for some unstable person to massacre fellow Americans. Indeed, it defined its purpose as achieving “security” against disruptions to the country’s new republican form of government. The Second Amendment read:

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” In other words, if read in context, you would see that the Second Amendment was enacted so each state would have the specific right to form “a well-regulated militia” to maintain “security,” i.e. to put down armed disorder."

Excellent article debunking the lies told by the American Right about the 2nd Amendment. Buried within the article is a nice link to a list of misquotes by said Right -

http://kryo.com/2ndAmen/Quotes.htm

In the face of gun violence tragedies like the ones that have taken place over the last few months, I believe looking back to learn where things went awry is the first step to understanding how to

1) Derive ways to clean up the current mess
2) Find ways to avoid making the same mistakes over again

The question American society has to ask themselves is - are they going to continually allow themselves to be bombarded by the Global Establishment's message about how it's just business as usual ...

...

Or perhaps collectively society might wake up and see the false narrative that's been created around them largely for the benefit of said Establishment; and subsequently do something different to improve their lives?

Another Android post test

The last post was simply finishing something I had already started. This is a new post altogether.

USA: Democracy or Republic?

This post got me wondering -

What is the true definition of United States of America:  Democracy or Republic?

https://www.google.com/#q=definition%20of%20united%20states%20of%20america%20democracy%20or%20republic&safe=off

So far I've not found a very good answer.

This makes things more confusing -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic#United_States

So who wants WA State's I-522 initiative on labeling foods that have GMO ingredients defeated?

http://organicconsumersfund.org/label/I-522-funders.cfm

*The Grocery Manufacturers Association includes these Companies: Safeway (O Organics), Starbucks, Target, Con-Agra (Alexia, Hunt's Organic and Natural Brands, Lightlife, Orville Redenbacher's Organic), Kellogg's (Kashi, Bear Naked, Gardenburger, Morningstar Farms), Unilever (Ben & Jerry's), Kraft (Boca Burgers), General Mills (Cascadian Farm, Larabar, Muir Glen), Hershey's (Dagoba,) Coca-Cola (Honest Tea, Odwalla), Dean Foods (Horizon Organic, Silk, White Wave), Pepsico (Naked Juice, Tostito's Organic, Tropicana Organic), Smucker's (R.W. Knudsen).

I don't feel like eating shit ... do you?

Evidently in the US of A, we all are ...

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18866-usda-seeks-to-expand-pilot-program-which-leaves-meat-contaminated-with-fecal-matter

"The program, known as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point-Based Inspection Models Project - or HIMP - has been in place since the late 1990s and its expansion would replace almost half the USDA Food Safety Service inspectors in industrial meat plants with inspectors employed by those very same companies. It would reportedly speed up production lines by as much as 20 percent.

But a recent article in The Washington Post, reports that three out of the five pilot HIMP plants were among the 10 worst health and safety violators in the country, according to a spring report by the USDA inspector general.

"The USDA all along has been saying that these pilots will prove that removing government inspectors and turning over [their] the responsibilities to the company employees will enhance food safety when, in essence, the exact opposite has occurred," said Tony Corbo, who directs the food program at nonprofit Food & Water Watch."


Nice work Truthout!

I have joined the 21th Century.

Testing posting via my Android smartphone and Blogger app.

Stop listening to those who push the 'orgy of excess' - start listening to people who learn by observing studying facts.

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18194-international-scientists-warn-climate-deniers-are-enabling-earth-s-suicide

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warming-is-very-real-20130912

" "Scientists are fighting deniers with irrefutable proof the planet is headed for catastrophe."  At the forefront of the counterattack against the false assertions of the massive industry-based campaign to deny the self-destruction of our planet is a body called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report [to be released on September 27] offers slam-dunk evidence that burning fossil fuels is the cause of most of the temperature increases of recent decades, and warn that sea levels could rise by almost three feet by the end of the century if we don't change our ways. The report will underscore that the basic facts about climate change are more established than ever, and that the consequences of escalating carbon pollution are likely to mean that, as The New York Times recently argued, "babies being born now could live to see the early stages of a global calamity.""

Poor Compulsive Hoarder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding

I would not say I have all the symptoms, but it's pretty clear to me some of there are there. Add to the fact that I'm going to be poor for at least the next little while (i.e. part of the 99%) and you pretty much describe me.

If I were rich you could say I have mild case of gear acquisition syndrome (Google claims in my search these two are related, but I disagree; being poor is the distinctive difference).

I think Elizabeth Warren would make a pretty good President.

Don't you?

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18187-the-american-people-know-that-the-system-is-rigged-against-them-elizabeth-warren

Of course that assumes her actions matches her words.

You'd think on this of all days, we'd learn from our past and move forward.

I've always wondered why a Canadian team hasn't won the Stanley Cup in over 20 years?

Turns out Nate Silver has the answer - the teams in the major metropolitan areas haven't had a strong incentive to really produce a winner, since their measure of success is really profit. This is no surprise since most if not all sports teams are owned by corporations whose goals pretty much revolve around profit.

I like this idea of having 2-3 Toronto teams, a second Montreal team, and another in the Pacific Northwest -

(Source: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/why-cant-canada-win-the-stanley-cup/?_r=0)

Canada really a happy place?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/09/08/happiness-canada-2013.html

I never really thought of it much. I definitely think life was certainly less stressful when I lived in Canada. But back then I was younger and had only myself to be responsible for.

Not sure how that'd work today.

On a related note, I wouldn't mind living in some of those other countries - Denmark, Norway, Switzerland,  Netherlands, or Sweden. Not sure about Finland or Iceland, but Austria or Australia sound good.

Curious - no countries in the top 10 from Asia, Africa or South America.

Why does American society force kids to recite the Pledge of Allegiance?

http://www.alternet.org/education/lets-end-pledge-allegiance-schools

We don't force corporations to incorporate it into their mission statements.

We don't force adults to recite it at work.

Why do we force kids to then?

Naughty naughty - two seconds makes a difference in the business world.

So does an hour.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/16-major-firms-may-have-received-early-data-from-thomson-reuters-20130905#ixzz2e6BvVPbC

Once again, a person doing their job is fired for speaking up.

Once again, no corporation who committed the act is being held accountable for their actions.

Overcoming 'Overburden'.

Read it - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/04

It's a damn good start. Right now dealing with global warming is our biggest challenge facing us all.

The first step is overcoming the right-wing/corporate establishment that opposes any change to the economic system that allows them to flourish and destroy us further.

Always several steps behind.

Why is it I'm shocked, but not surprised by this?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/03

"There are at least 12 significant feedbacks that will have a substantial effect on the rate and pace of warming. Yet feedbacks are often too complex to fully characterize, let alone model.  Yet their effects are serious.  For example just 3 of these feedbacks could add as much as 4.5 degrees to the warming forecasts for 2100.

The first is a result of decreases  in sulfur aerosols from phytoplankton, as the seas become more acidic and these critters begin to die off.  Sulfur aerosols are known to moderate solar gain and mitigate global warming.  This could increase warming by close to 1F by 2100.

Extreme weather events could add another 1.5 F since they effect the Earth’s ability to sequester human emissions and in some cases increase those emissions directly.Add these to the 2 F expected from methane releases – a conservative number if one compares the results of similar events in the geologic record – and these 3 feedbacks alone could add 4.5 F to our worst-case projections for 2100.

And of course, warming doesn’t simply stop in 2100, merely because we stop modeling beyond that.  It continues and accelerates, and, unchecked, becomes self-reinforcing and irreversible.  We’re already locked into thousands of years of sea level rise from the carbon we’ve put into the system to date. "

Sad stupidity captured by my camera.

You're think people would be able to read signs and follow them. In this particular case it's pretty obvious why this one is there ...

Look more closely ...

Look I admit, we used to do this once before ... back when it was allowed. Today it's not, and for the reasons listed. Feeding birds people food will have then pollute up the water with their shit and make a mess, and spread diseases through the water. Then the county will have then find the whole flock and wipe them out.


But does that stop these idiots?

No. And they were doing so with their daughter and granddaughter doing it as well. What a great fucking lesson they are learning.

Yeah, I don't care if it's an old person. There shouldn't be two sets of rules for society.

Then there's these idiots ...

They were even better ... instead of giving out potato chips, it was junk food fries.

Classy people ... classy all the way.

Sigh - kids back to school; end of summer has arrived.

Yeah yeah, I know that summer 'officially' ends towards the last week of September, but fuck you.

As far as I'm concerned, summer begins in June and ends when August is over and it's back to school.

Where did all that time go?

Quote of the day - 08-29-2013.

From Yoni Freedhoff (http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2013/08/26/f-soft-drinks-benefits-risks.html)-

"health-haloing," - a marketing practice in which companies create associations between their products and healthy living.

Yeah soft drink makers are really no different than the tobacco companies in how they market their products. I find it convenient that the one person touting the soft drink ad is a marketing person, not a scientist or nutritionist.

It leads me to wonder if there is a definitive link between soda consumption and addiction? After all, from what I recall, the tobacco companies were 'nailed' (I use that in quotes because really they are still around and still in business and still making money) not just because their products were shown to be hazardous, but as well were shown to be both addictive and that said companies were deliberately spiking their products to make them more so.

My path to being a US Citizen

Well it’s been long time coming, but I can finally say it – after living in this country for 14 years, I finally gave in and became a US Citizen this year. I managed to retain my previous citizenship. Having both has many advantages.

Now that I am an American, I think I can finally comment on many of the processes and things I went through to get to this point.

It certainly was a long process. Some of it took longer than expected due to events beyond my control, while other aspects were of my own doing.

I can say this - I went through the process from start to end legally.

I left my previous place of residence to come to this country to work. I was on a yearly visa the first year because I was a contractor working for a large company; I wasn’t sure how long the contract would last, or whether it’d be extended and so on.

The wonderful world of working for a large software company (okay let’s be honest – Microsoft was at that time the largest software company at the time, and it was certainly the most unique) was before me – and I was cast in.

It was like indentured servitude at times for sure. That's the wonderful world of being on an H-1B visa. You're pretty much a slave to the corporation. Yeah sure you may *technically* be an employee, but the reality in the building is you're there to fufill a need and at any point if you don't you can be yanked out of your office, out of your desk, and shipped back to wherever you came from.

On top of that ... Since just about every aspect of my contract was between the contracting company and the client company, pretty much my entire life at that time and its forward direction rested on spending the bulk of it as the service of the client company.

Now to be fair, it's not as if it was all bad. That is, this isn’t to say I minded - I was young, I was ready and determined to work (I sound like Hilary Clinton, 'I'm tested. I'm ready ... let's get to work!"). I was in a unique part of the world, working for a very unique company in a very unique environment. There were a lot of creative people, lots of positive energy, working with what was at the time cutting-edge technology, and what seemed like lots of time and curiosity to figure things out. Needless to say, we spent a great deal of time together.

Lots of geeks, dorks, nerds, and some attractive people as well, all infused with a sense of power and a desire to learn. Admittedly I was one of them. I’d like to believe along the way I even made some friends.

Then relationships develop, and things slow down. The pace of churning out results and riffs and stuff begin to move at a crawl, when at one point it was a sprint. Everything suddenly because a case of determining where to find a large place to store all of one’s stuff.

 Then 9/11 happened. That stopped the everything. The process of getting a green card was halted for a few years. Meanwhile I continued to exist as slave. Granted, when I got married, the company suggested I could simply get a new visa through my spouse and start the green card process that way, but at that point I figured I'd invested too much time, energy, money and dedication to suddenly stop what I had been doing ...

... little did I know it'd take another 3 years. Being fingerprinted like a criminal, being badly photographed more times that I care to admit. Endless questions, forms, money to send, waiting in line, sitting watching queues fill up, surrounded by morons (both immigrants as well as the private contractors whom the government has chosen to outsource this work to) ... a mound of joy for sure.

My green card finally did arrive ... I was no longer a slave.

But then a kid arrives. Another kid arrives, and suddenly being a US Citizen (or at least starting that process wasn't as important anymore). Just surviving and living and supporting the family becomes more important. So another 3 years go before that slowing starts working out.

Then another three years before I finally kick things off for good. And so ...

More good times of being fingerprinted like a criminal, being badly photographed more times that I care to admit. Endless questions, forms, money to send, waiting in line, sitting watching queues fill up, surrounded by morons (both immigrants as well as the private contractors whom the government has chosen to outsource this work to) ... an even bigger mound of joy for sure.

Which leads to where I am today.

I can honestly say, that a great deal of time was wasted due to my own inaction. I can see that. Had I been more active and forceful, I would've become a citizen 6-7 years ago.

Time will tell if that inaction really makes a difference in the rest of my life.

Perhaps it's all a test of some sort - like how badly do you really want to become an American?

Which leads me to one general thought about the whole process - when talking about illegal immigrants, I definitely think that shutting the borders down to them, and blaming them for many of the economic and employment woes that befall the US isn't the answer. Heck, it's not even the cause. It's funny how so many who do just that are rarely honest about the real reasons corporations hire illegal immigrants in the first place. I never bought into this lie that there are certain jobs Americans simply won't do - corporations hire illegal immigrants because they don't want to hire and pay someone in this country the wages and salary such employment is really worth.

Which isn't to say those who enter and work here illegally did the right thing.

I do feel though that there should be a general amnesty about the whole things. That decision to enter the US and work here in an undocumented fashion shouldn't count against them on the path to pursuing US citizenship. However it should also not entitle them to move the front of the line in terms of the general process. That is, they should be able to file and go through the process without any negative impacts of their status, but they should still go through the process just like everyone else did - lines, fingerprinting, photographs, forms, the whole works. Their undocumented status should not hurt them, but it should not be turned around and used as an advantage over every other immigrant who came here legally and followed the process.

That is - welcome to America. Fill out the form and get in line!